I feel uncomfortable if I don’t drink it for a day! Milk tea is delicious and addictive, but do you know the "seven deadly sins"?

Have you had your first cup of milk tea in summer? Milk tea is a drink that many people are obsessed with. It has also spawned many internet celebrity check-in spots, and the scene of people queuing up to buy milk tea has become commonplace.

Young people rely on milk tea to "extend their lives". They mutter, "Drinking milk tea is unhealthy, unhealthy...", but they show off their milk tea every day: "Give me a large cup, an extra large cup..."

What exactly is milk tea? Why does drinking it make people so satisfied? What should milk tea lovers do? In this article, we will talk about the three questions about milk tea.

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01

Is milk tea a healthy combination of milk and tea?

You wish! Common milk tea is not that good. It’s just a good name, not literally “milk + tea”.

Healthy tea + healthy milk ≠ healthy “milk tea”.

If you have the conditions, you can of course DIY a homemade milk tea with milk and tea leaves. This is a healthy drink (provided that you don't add too much sugar ), but most people don't have that time. They almost always drink instant milk tea, liquid milk tea, and freshly made milk tea from milk tea shops. These "milk teas" often contain neither milk nor tea, or the content is only a little bit.

For example, a certain brand of instant milk tea that is very popular among people is mainly composed of non-dairy creamer + added sugar + flavoring, which does contain milk and tea ingredients.

The picture is taken from the e-commerce platform

However, according to the General Rules for Pre-packaged Food Labeling, the ingredient list on food packaging needs to be arranged in order of usage from most to least. In other words, the most used ingredient should be written at the front, and the less used the more it is, the less it should be written at the back.

Obviously, the "milk and tea" in this product are not the main ingredients, but the non-dairy creamer. The aroma of milk tea mainly comes from it, and only one drop of this thing can make it fragrant.

Even freshly made milk tea is made from drinking water and milk tea base with some auxiliary ingredients, not pure milk and tea. These raw materials and ingredients also determine that these "milk teas" are not healthy drinks and should not be drunk too much.

The picture is taken from "T/FJCFA 0001-2021 Freshly Made Milk Tea (Group Standard)"

02

Why drink milk tea?

Makes people happy and addictive?

Many people would say: "Don't talk to me about health first, I drink milk tea for happiness!" The moment they inhale the milk tea, their faces are filled with genuine happiness! Why does drinking milk tea make people happy and addicted?

The reason why milk tea makes people happy has to do with our brain. There is a reward system in the brain that makes us feel happy when we do certain things, and this is achieved through a neurotransmitter called dopamine . When a person or animal satisfies hunger, neurons in a specific area of ​​the brain are activated, secreting dopamine and releasing it into the nucleus accumbens, making us happy and wanting to experience this pleasure again. [1]

Delicious food can also activate the brain's reward system, increasing the release of dopamine, giving the body a sense of satisfaction and pleasure, thus leading to addiction. [2] This is especially true for sweets and fats, which can activate the central nervous system and stimulate the production of dopamine, giving people a sense of satisfaction and pleasure, and can also lead to addiction. Milk tea is exactly the same. Based on the brain's desire for happiness, you will want to order a cup of milk tea whenever you want.

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This habit, which seems unhealthy now, once drove our ancestors to actively consume high-calorie foods to increase their chances of survival in the primitive era when food was scarce. But if modern people let this "instinct" take over, they will get sick from eating.

In addition, many milk teas also contain a little caffeine, which can also make people feel energetic for a while, and make people feel that drinking milk tea is very refreshing and can't stop.

03

What problems will drinking milk tea bring?

Are you happy drinking milk tea? Well, here comes the problem: although drinking milk tea regularly can bring you emotional happiness, it can also bring you physical troubles.

1. Accelerates aging

Milk tea is sweet and delicious, but drinking it every day may age your skin. This is because sugar is eventually broken down into glucose in the body before it can be used by the body. If too much sugar is added to food, the excess glucose produced is more likely to react with proteins, amino acids or lipids to produce advanced glycation end products (AGEs), which can glycate collagen and elastin, accelerating skin aging. [3]

2. Acne

Most milk teas have a high sugar content and are generally high GI foods. Studies have shown that high GI foods may be related to acne. [4, 5]

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Even sugar-free milk tea may contain a lot of sugar. In March this year, the Consumer Rights Protection Committee of Qianwan New Area, Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province, conducted a comparative test on some milk tea products sold on the market, sampling 33 batches of samples, all of which were from brands that people often buy on the market. After testing, the sugar content in these samples ranged from 2.9 to 11.4 grams per 100 grams. The average sugar content of milk tea without additional sugar was 3.97 grams per 100 grams, and the average total sugar content of full-sugar milk tea was 7.53 grams per 100 grams. [6]

The capacity of a large cup of milk tea is mostly 450 ml/cup. Even if you order sugar-free milk tea, you will consume nearly 18 grams of sugar by drinking one cup. If you often drink full-sugar milk tea, the sugar intake will be as high as 34 grams/cup, which exceeds the limit value of sugar intake in the "Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents" (sugar intake is best controlled within 25 grams/day).

3. Tooth decay

If you don't rinse your mouth in time after drinking milk tea, the sugar in it will provide a "comfortable" growth and reproduction environment for the bacteria in your mouth. The bacteria and sugar will gradually "break down" your teeth together, and eventually form caries. At that time, many delicious foods can only be seen.

4. Obesity

Milk tea is high in calories, so drinking it often will naturally make you gain weight. However, in addition to the calorie problem, there is another reason why milk tea makes people gain weight.

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Fructose is commonly found in milk tea, and sucrose also releases fructose after digestion. A foreign animal study found that the villi of mice fed a diet containing fructose were 25% to 40% longer than those of mice not fed fructose, which also increased the weight of the mice. The reason is that fructose can increase the survival rate of intestinal cells and increase the length of intestinal villi. As the length of villi increases, the surface area of ​​the intestine also expands, increasing the nutrient absorption and fat content of high-fat foods. The researchers said that the results of this study could be used to try to shorten the villi of humans to reduce fat absorption. [7]

5. Cardiovascular disease

The non-dairy creamer in milk tea contains trans fatty acids. Excessive intake of trans fatty acids will increase the risk of cardiovascular disease.

6. Gout

The fructose ingested from drinking milk tea can also promote the production of uric acid. Excessive sugar intake may also cause insulin resistance, indirectly reducing the excretion of uric acid and increasing the risk of gout attacks.

7. Insomnia

The caffeine content of milk tea is not low. Some researchers tested the caffeine content of milk tea sold in Shanghai. The caffeine content of 42 milk tea samples varied greatly. The difference between the highest and lowest content was more than 10 times, ranging from 2.57 to 27.90 mg/100 g, and the average was 11.8 mg/100 g. [8] This means that drinking a 450 ml cup of milk tea may result in the intake of 53.1 mg of caffeine, which is almost equivalent to 2 small packets of instant coffee.

Caffeine can refresh the mind, especially at night, it will make people sleepy and difficult to fall asleep. For example, if I have a cup of milk tea at night, I may not fall asleep until 3 o'clock in the morning.

04

Really want to drink milk tea

A final farewell?

I understand the reason, but I just can't control myself. I can't stop drinking milk tea and I have no resistance! So how can I reduce the harm of milk tea?

1. It is best to choose milk made from real milk

If it is freshly made milk tea, you can observe whether the store uses fresh milk. Some will write "real fresh milk, no creamer, no vegetable cream". Big brands are relatively safer and it is best not to add milk cap; if it is instant milk tea or pre-packaged liquid milk tea, then look at the ingredient list and choose the one with real milk as the first one, and try not to choose creamer or non-dairy creamer.

2. Selection of small ingredients

Don’t choose processed foods such as bubble tea and coconut fiber as condiments. You can choose fruit cubes, oatmeal, tortoise jelly, grass jelly, etc. as condiments.

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3. Choose one without added sugar

Although commercially available sugar-free milk tea may contain sugar, the amount is still much lower than full-sugar milk tea, so it is still a good choice relatively speaking.

4. Control your diet

The carbohydrate and fat content of milk tea is not low. After drinking milk tea, you should eat less staple food and reduce the amount of cooking oil.

5. Remember to exercise more after drinking

The calories in a cup of milk tea need at least 1 hour of exercise to burn them off. It is recommended to increase exercises such as brisk walking, jogging, playing ball, swimming, etc. to balance the calories and prevent weight gain.

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Okay, it’s milk tea time today, so let’s choose a cup of healthy milk tea!

References:

[1] Sun Liuling, Chen Wei, He Yuxiu. Midbrain ventral tegmental area-nucleus accumbens dopaminergic pathway and obesity[C]//Chinese Physiological Society Exercise Physiology Committee, Beijing Sport University. Proceedings of the 2018 Chinese Physiological Society Exercise Physiology Committee Conference and the Academic Seminar on "Science and Technology Innovation and Exercise Physiology". [Publisher unknown], 2018: 301-302.

[2] Liu Weiwei, Tao Feng, Gao Jiandong. Relationship between dopamine and obesity[J]. International Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism, 2018, 38(002):89-92.

[3] Zhou Mengting, Xu Jun, Ye Liangwei, et al. Research progress on the formation, hazards, inhibition methods and effective raw materials of advanced glycation end products (AGEs)[J]. Modern Food, 2019(24).

[4] Smith RN Mann NJ Braue A. Makelainen H. Varigos GAThe effect of a high-protein, low glycemic-load diet versus a conventional, high glycemic-load diet on biochemical parameters associated with acne vulgaris: a randomized, investigator-masked, controlled trial. J Am Acad Dermatol. 2007; 57: 247-256

[5] Kwon HH Yoon JY Hong JS Jung JY Park MS Suh DHClinical and histological effect of a low glycaemic load diet in treatment of acne vulgaris in Korean patients: a randomized, controlled trial. Acta Derm Venereol. 2012; 92: 241-246

[6] https://www.ccn.com.cn/Content/2023/03-15/1207184208.html

[7] Taylor SR, Ramsamooj S, Liang RJ, Katti A, Pozovskiy R, Vasan N, Hwang SK, Nahiyaan N, Francoeur NJ, Schatoff EM, Johnson JL, Shah MA, Dannenberg AJ, Sebra RP, Dow LE, Cantley LC, Rhee KY, Goncalves MD. Dietary fructose improves intestinal cell survival and nutrient absorption. Nature. 2021 Sep;597(7875):263-267. doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03827-2. Epub 2021 Aug 18. PMID: 34408323; PMCID: PMC8686685.

[8] Chai Pinghai. Analysis of nutritional components of milk tea sold in Shanghai[J]. Food Safety Guide, 2023(1):97-100

Author: Xue Qingxin, one of the first nutrition instructors of the National Health Commission, and a registered nutritionist in China

Reviewer: Zhang Na, Associate Researcher, Doctoral Supervisor, Peking University School of Public Health

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